


Anxiety

by ponchard



Series: They Are All Real - Stories of Minor NPCs [3]
Category: Dragon Age II
Genre: Archery, Crackpot Theory | Theories, Darktown, Demons, Drinking, Enigma of Kirkwall, F/F, Fade Spirits, Gen, Kirkwall (Dragon Age), Lesser Terror Demon, One Shot, Shades, Spirits, Templars (Dragon Age), Tevinters, The Fade, The Veil (Dragon Age), an alternate explanation for all those mystery enemies, and who seemed to keep repopulating despite Kirkwall's lack of children, even though the Champion kept clearing them out, stealth - Freeform, that materialized from walls, this also explains why "virtue" names were so popular in Kirkwall
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-05
Updated: 2016-07-05
Packaged: 2018-07-21 16:26:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 899
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7394926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ponchard/pseuds/ponchard
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>One-shot about a lesser terror demon that finds itself on the wrong side of the Veil.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Anxiety

I will take a wrong turn. No, that's wrong. I _took_ a wrong turn. In the past. It was days ago, I think. I must have bumped into a weak spot. The old blood frayed it, told the places to mix together, like they were when the blood was new. The blood circles shifted around me, and I became this. Hands and lungs and hair.

The woman who was afraid of mabari said "this happens more often than you'd think." I didn't know how often it was supposed to happen. The blood sang _always, always, always_ , but there were shiny people with swords who said it should never. I was supposed to stay away from the shiny people, to move around when the shine went away and none of the other people could see. Well, I could see, and some of the others could see. The "more often than you'd think" people. But if they arrived a long time ago, they stopped seeing extra things. They became people.

The cutting-open circles had more than just old blood. They had new, too. It made the circles talk louder, made the two places mix together more. And new blood made people disappear. They would fall on the ground and stop thinking, and the blood (their blood?) would flow into the circles that the stern men made long ago. I think _that_ happened more often than it was supposed to. People seemed upset about it. The woman said that's why she didn't attack me. She needed more people because her people kept falling.

She handed me a bow and taught me how to make arrows move with it. They wouldn't move by themselves, but I could move my hand, and my hand could move the bow, and the bow would make them go. When I did that, people would give us things. The woman who didn't like mabari said we needed those things. The others and her would use them, but they don't make sense to me yet. They say that will happen later, after I've been here longer.

Today she taught me something new. Since I'm new, I can do things that other people can't. The other place, the real place, is still beside me, and I can use it to fold into shadows or hold onto the tops of walls. When I jump down with my bow, people are even more surprised, and they give us more things. _Where did you come from? Please, just let me go home._ Now we have his bow, and his bags.

After that, we went back to our positions. I slid between places to cling to the roof, with the other bow-holders. "This is a good spot," she said. _None of those doglords._ I thought it was nice, too. The white stone under me felt smooth, different from the bow. The bow had little bumps on it, like dreamers do, even when they try to look real for us. All edges and textures.

A sound came from the alley below. Beside me, Devotion stiffened. _Mabari. No, one mabari. Same word for different feelings. One is a challenge, and many is a chorus of teeth._ Devotion had come here years ago. He was new enough to wiggle in between places, but old enough to make his own fears.

I pulled my bow out, moving it to the place that made it ready. I looked down to see if I could see a mabari, the one mabari. Instead, there were people.

"You're a handful, you know that?" _Will she get bored of me? Maker, I must be so boring._

"More than _one_ handful, I hope." _People always change. Don't get..._

"Mmm, I don't know about that. I'll have to check again." They stumbled together. The one who thought she was boring squashed against the other's back, reaching her arms around the front. _Did I really say that? Ugh, I must sound like an amateur._

"'Have to check'? Pfff, now you've hurt my feelings!" _Shouldn't say that word. Can she hear it in my voice?_

They swayed together, leaning up against a wall. "What's that? The Queen of the Eastern Seas has feelings?" _No no, not that word. You'll scare her off._ The one who was a handful spun around, pushing both elbows to the wall, forearms framing the other's head.

"Shh, shh, not so loud, sweet thing. Your pirate queen has a reputation to maintain." _Shit! I am too drunk for this conversation._ One of her arms slid down the wall.

_Don't read into it. You can't will it into existence._

_What if I let myself? What then?_

"Unhhhh, whatever you say, Capt- ah!"

"Found it," Devotion whispered, pointing his arrow toward a shape in one of the other alleys. "Looks like a mean one."

The one mabari wasn't afraid of anything. 

"What should I do?"

"They'll be easy pickings, but the dog'll make trouble. We should head over there and deal with it."

"Follow you?"

"Yes, follow me."

We dropped off the rooftop and walked softly past the people. Up close, they looked shinier than the people who usually gave us things. Also, their faces were very pink. But they weren't looking our way, so they must have been safe. When the one mabari came into view, Devotion pulled on his bow. He squinted at the shape. Suddenly, he grabbed my arm.

_It saw us._

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by a post on the BSN, which theorized that many of Kirkwall's NPCs are shades. It explains a surprising amount of the weird stuff around enemy spawning in Kirkwall.
> 
>   1. dropping from walls - even once they've physically manifested, shades like Cole or Imshael have lots of Fade powers
>   2. constant supply of bad guys, despite high mortality rate and almost no children - shades can skip childhood entirely
>   3. lots of aggressive people while Hawke is just trying to have a stroll - spirits, especially those who didn't cross the Veil intentionally, are often confused and can do violent/unpredictable things
>   4. the trend of "virtue" names in Kirkwall - while many of these names (like Worthy) are just following the trend, some could be spirits' actual names
> 

> 
> Now, the likelier explanation is artistic license on Varric's part. 
> 
> But, ever since Cole, I like the idea that there are many more shades than we realize. What if we just _assume_ that "normal" shades look like sliding piles of goo, because we don't notice all the shades that look like people?


End file.
